Sharing is caring, as the saying goes. But for the University of Memphis, it's an offensive philosophy.

That's one of the reasons coach Josh Pastner is always looking under the ‘A' in the Tigers' box-scores after games.

"Twenty-one assists on 35 made field goals," Pastner said after the Tigers' 82-79 overtime win over Temple last Saturday, pointing to a statistic he believes is vital to the success of Memphis' offensive schemes.

"I've always believed the open man is the go-to man. I've never believed in having a go-to man, and I'm a big believer in having high assists on made field goals. I believe in making the extra pass. Offensively, that's when we're at our best."

As criticized as the Tigers have been at times for playing too individually — "What are Memphis' offensive sets called — your turn? My turn?" ESPN college basketball writer Dana O'Neil tweeted during Memphis' blowout loss at Oklahoma State in November — the fact is for a second straight year they are among the nation's best teams when it comes to sharing the ball, and potentially among the best in school history.

Through 27 games this season, Memphis (21-6, 10-4 American Athletic Conference) ranks third nationally in assists at 17.8 per game. Only Iowa State (18.7) and Creighton (18) have been better.

And for the second straight year, Memphis is on pace to have three players, seniors Joe Jackson (128 assists this season), Geron Johnson (101) and Chris Crawford (81), register more than 100 assists. Before last season, the Tigers had never had three players on the same team have 100 or more assists.

Not only were Memphis' 605 assists last season the third-most in the country. They were the fourth-most in a single season by a Tigers team. If Memphis continues at its current pace of nearly 18 assists per game and plays at least as many games as it did last season (36), it will break the school's all-time single-season record for team assists held by the 2007-08 national runner-up team (637), which averaged 15.9 assists over 40 games.

"We've always been good at sharing the ball, but with this team there's something — everybody just like seeing others do well. That's one thing we preach about a lot, being unselfish," Crawford said.

"It's about how deep you wanna get in the season. You come into (college) with a lot of hype, knowing that you can score the ball, but when you're sacrificing for the team you get great shots instead of good shots. It's all about getting great shots every time down."

Memphis' 1984-85 Final Four team (620 assists) and its 1985-86 squad (592 assists), which both featured the school's all-time assist leader in Andre Turner, rank second and fifth, respectively, on the school's single-season assists list. Turner averaged a team-leading 6.6 assists in 84-85 and a career-high 7.7 in 85-86.

Though Jackson isn't close to those numbers, averaging a team-leading 4.7 assists this season, he's developed from a shoot-first guard coming out of White Station High into a player who now understands the importance of getting his teammates good shots. Since Memphis' 73-67 road win at Louisville on Jan. 9, Jackson has averaged 5.9 assists.

"It's the way the coaches make us play," Jackson said. "It's the personnel we have, too. We've got so many guards, it's only right to have a team that's getting a lot of assists."

With 481 assists this season, the Tigers have registered assists on 61.2 percent of their made baskets, which Pastner believes equates to good offense. The Tigers are 9-0 this season when they register 20 or more assists. Compare that to their 1-3 record in the NCAA tournament under Pastner, where they've averaged 10 assists in those four games.

"The best way to make shots is getting the ball to the second and third side and beyond. That doesn't just mean pass it around the perimeter. That means running your offense, but giving up a good shot on the first side to get an even better shot on the second side, or maybe passing that up to get a great shot on the third side," Pastner said.

"It's important to me because that means we're moving the ball and we're playing unselfishly. I don't think our team gets enough credit nationally or locally on how well we move the basketball and play the right way (offensively). We lead the all the power conferences in points in the paint. We're one of the top three in assists. These young men play beautiful basketball. When they play the right way, it's beautiful basketball."